Melanie Bicking

Scenario building for E-Government in 2020: Consolidating the results from regional workshops

E-government research is currently at a stage of consolidation and new orientation. Smaller steps of government modernization have in part been successfully implemented; larger ones still lie ahead of us. Within an EC funded project, a roadmap for e-government is being defined. Thereby, scenario building about the future is being used to grasp pictures of the future. From these future scenarios, research actions shall be derived. In this paper we present the results of the scenario building workshops in four regions for e-government in the year 2020. In total 15 scenarios were developed shaping aspects of different dimensions of alternative futures. A wide range of topics were addressed, varying from interoperability, division of power, corruption, cyber war to changing democratic systems, religious activities, participations and the role of individualisms in society. Next steps are to assess the scenario results in respect to the current EC agenda and to derive from there actions of research in order to ensure that desired futures will come true and that unwanted futures are being avoided

Defining a taxonomy for research areas on ICT for governance and policy modelling

As governments across the world provide more and more support to open data initiatives and web 2.0 channels for engaging citizens, researchers orient themselves towards future internet, wisdom of crowds and virtual world experiments. In this context, the domain of ICT for Governance and Policy Modelling has recently emerged to achieve better, participative, evidence-based and timely governance. This paper presents a taxonomy classifying the research themes, the research areas and the research sub-areas that challenge this domain in order to deal with its diversity and complexity. Taking into account advancements in research, policy and practice, the taxonomy brings together the open, linked data and visual analytics philosophy; the social media buzz taming collective wisdom in decision-making; and the future internet approaches around cloud computing, internet of things and internet of services, while embracing the collaborative policy modelling aspects and the safeguarding against misuse implications.

Envisioning Digital Europe 2030: Scenarios for ICT in Future Governance and Policy Modelling

The report Envisioning Digital Europe 2030 is the result of research conducted by the Information Society Unit of IPTS as part of the CROSSROAD Project - A Participative Roadmap on ICT research on Electronic Governance and Policy Modelling (www.crossroad-eu.net ). After outlining the purpose and scope of the report and the methodological approach followed, the report presents the results of a systematic analysis of societal, policy and research trends in the governance and policy modelling domain in Europe. These analyses are considered central for understanding and roadmapping future research on ICT for governance and policy modelling. The study further illustrates the scenario design framework, analysing current and future challenges in ICT for governance and policy modelling, and identifying the key impact dimensions to be considered. It then presents the scenarios developed at the horizon 2030, including the illustrative storyboards representative of each scenario and the prospective opportunities and risks identified for each of them. The scenarios developed are internally consistent views of what the European governance and policy making system could have become by 2030 and of what the resulting implications for citizens, business and public services would be. Finally, the report draws conclusions and presents the proposed shared vision for Digital Europe 2030, offering also a summary of the main elements to be considered as an input for the future development of the research roadmap on ICT for governance and policy modelling.

Concept to Integrate Open Collaboration in Technology Roadmapping: Stakeholder Involvement in Strategic E-Government Planning

Good Governance is an important objective for improving responsible management of public resources. Also the formulation of policies for e-government research requires complying with Good Governance. To ensure that the principles of Good Governance are met in strategic planning of e-government research, stakeholder involvement in the formulation and scoping of future research fields is crucial. Stakeholder involvement and participation encompass political, social and societal engagement. In this paper, we first examine in how far stakeholders can be and are already involved in policy-oriented science and technology roadmapping. We then propose a concept for open collaboration to facilitate online stakeholder engagement in strategic planning of e-government research.

Looking into the future: scenarios for e-government in 2020

Scenario building is a technique to stimulate different perspectives and images on the future. This technique allows to better predict the evolution of a certain domain beyond short-term forecasting based on the scenarios developed. The EC co-funded project eGovRTD2020 aims to develop scenarios of e-government in 2020 and beyond. The vision is to transform the EC government landscape into a coherent community, which anticipates customer needs and leverages the potential of the diversity and innovativeness of public agencies. In this paper, we give an overview of the scenario building methodology and develop a first set of scenarios using trend analysis. Four scenarios are derived showing different futures on e-government in 2020. The scenarios contain different aspects of integration, decentralization and centralization of power and governmental departments, democratizing systems and the role of individualisms and collectivism in society. The scenarios were used as a starting point for a series of regional scenario building workshops carried out across Europe. In a next stage, the scenarios will feed into a roadmapping exercise for e-government research.

Method and Tools to Support Stakeholder Engagement in Policy Development: The OCOPOMO Project

Good governance and open government principles require more participative, open, transparent, accountable, and collaborative. However, in public policy development, the negligence of these principles loomed particularly large until recently. In consequence, citizens have taken action by forming protest activities or responding to current politics with election turnouts leading to drastic change in political directions. Lessons from such activities are that policy makers need urgently to respond to demands of citizens to engage more pro-actively with politics in policy decisions that heavily concern particular stakeholder groups and citizens. Both groups need reliable support and up-to-date information and efficient and effective interactions on emerging societal problems and public affairs. The authors introduce an innovative approach to collaborative policy development, integrating scenario development, and formal policy modelling via an ICT toolbox. To bridge the gap between narrative texts of stakeholder-generated scenarios and formal policy models generating model-based scenarios, introducing conceptual modelling, which supports the construction of conceptual models of the policy domain and which enables tracing inputs of stakeholders to inform the formal policy models. This way, policy makers and stakeholders are better supported to understand the policy context. The OCOPOMO Open Collaboration in Policy Modelling approach fully supports the implementation of good governance principles.

Open Collaboration in Policy Development: Concept and Architecture to Integrate Scenario Development and Formal Policy Modelling

Along the demands for good governance and open government, policymakers need concise, reliable and up-to-date information to respond to society’s problems and affairs in an efficient and effective way. Likewise, stakeholders affected by a particular policy call for transparency, accountability and trustworthiness in political decision-making. Along the evolution of information society that leads to increasing digitisation of information and knowledge artefacts and public services, citizens more and more request direct involvement in policymaking. In this chapter, we introduce a comprehensive and innovative approach to collaborative policy development. The approach integrates collaborative scenario building and formal policy modelling via an integrated ICT toolbox. Stakeholders are collaboratively involved in the scenario development as well as in the evaluation of simulation outcomes. To bridge the gap between narrative texts of stakeholder-generated scenarios (evidenced through background documents of the policy to be discussed) and formal policy models (generating model-based scenarios), the approach introduces conceptual modelling, which enables the different stakeholders to better understand the policy context and to support semi-automatic transformation of text statements into formal statements and agent descriptions. A consequence of the agent-based modelling approach used is that the justifications for expectations of the stakeholders are made precise, explicit and linked to evidence, and this process provides for the monitoring of ongoing policy implementation.

A scenario-based approach towards open collaboration for policy modelling

In the context of current increasing variety, interconnectivity and alteration, many methods and tools for planning and decision-making such as time series analysis and trend extrapolation do not longer work out. Along the demands for good governance and open government, policy-makers need concise, reliable and up-to-date information to manage societys problems and affairs in an efficient and effective way. Likewise, stakeholders affected by a particular policy demand transparency, accountability and trustworthiness in political decision-making. Along the increasing digitisation of the Information Society, citizens are more and more requesting direct involvement in policymaking. The implementation of good governance principles as already defined a decade ago by OECD or the European Commission become predominant in societal evolution. In this contribution, a novel approach to policy development through collaborative scenario building via online means and formal modelling and simulation of policy is introduced. The approach adds value to current policy discussions by facilitating the understanding and assessment of specific policy issues, letting stakeholders express their views and concerns on a policy via collaborative scenarios and e-participation tools, and providing means to better understand consequences of policy choices.

Qualitative Data Analysis of Issue Interrelations and Interdependencies for E-Government Research Planning

Science and technology roadmapping is currently a popular method to develop long-term strategies for e-government. In the scope of the EC-co-funded research project eGovRTD2020, an innovative methodology has been developed, which combines scenarios and roadmapping to support long-term strategic policy-making for e-government research. This approach bases on systematically analyzing qualitative data throughout the whole roadmapping process based on individual issues and their interrelations. The paper explores the complex analysis of the network of relations and interdependencies between these issues. We introduce a concept for the systematic analysis of interlinks between single issues, which helps improving the quality of analysis and advances the consolidation of results to form well grounded strategic policy-making. A case example extracted from the project serves as proof of concept.

Roadmapping Future E-Government Research

Global electronic markets, virtual organisations, virtual identities, virtual products and services, and Internet-related crime are growing in prominence and importance. In a world that is increasingly non-physical and borderless, what are government’s roles, responsibilities and limitations? The Internet plays a central role within the transformation process from traditional governments towards modern and innovative government that the requirements of an Information Society. Based on the findings of the eGovRTD2020 project, that aims at identifying key research challenges and at implementing a model for a holistic government with horizon 2020, this paper explains the necessity to investigate and understand the Internet and in particular government’s role and responsibilities in it. Furthermore, the paper provides a research roadmap that details how to address certain issue related research questions.